We went to ChickfilA to let the girls play for a while, since it's been to cold to go anywhere. Brent and I were sitting in the little play room, watching the girls. There were about 4 or 5 boys playing as well. They were probably in 1st or 2st grade. At some point all the kids were up in the tunnels and we heard the boys ask Mariska how old she was. When she said she was 5, the boys called her a baby. She got seriously upset. She ran down to us and told us what they had said. We told her that they were wrong and that she should just ignore them and play with the nicer kids. The whole time we were there the boys kept sitting in the entrance of the tunnels, just so other kids couldn't go in and they could have the tunnels to themselves. When it got really crowded and backed up we would say to move and let other kids in, but they kept doing it every now and then.
A little bit later there were just our girls, the boys and one other little girl who looked about 3 maybe 4. They were all in the tunnels and we heard the boys call Mariska a baby again and she started to cry and said "You guys are wrong and you're mean" the boys went on to say that they (the boys and the other little girl) were a club and they didn't want Mariska in it because they didn't want cry babies in their club and then went on to say that if she came over by their club they were going to punch her and kick her in the butt. At this point Brent headed up into the tunnel. As he went up to chew out the boys, I went out into the dining room and just said loudly to everyone, because I had no clue who their parent were, "Can we get some parents to the boys that are in here?" A table with 3 ladies around it, obviously friends out to lunch, just stared up at me and asked "what are they doing?" Like another parent coming out to alert them was no big deal and that what their boys were doing had to be really bad in order for them to interrupt their conversation. I just said, "They're being rude, and calling names and just causing problems". They stared at me for about 4 seconds as though in their brains they were thinking "So what are we supposed to do?" After the 4 seconds of blank stares I just said, "So could we get sort of supervision for these boys?" And went back in just as Brent had finished chewing them out. Two of the moms came in and asked the boys, in a loving sing-songy voice, "Are you boys playing nice?" Of course the boys lied and said yes. The ring leader of the group came down crying and the two moms told him to go out to talk to his mother. They simply turned and as they walked out sang, "You guys make sure you play nice".
So the crying kid never came back in and a few of the other boys stayed out for a while. The crying kid's Mom kept glaring over at Brent... if she had come over to confront us about yelling at her kid, we were just going to say that if she didn't want other parents to get after her son, that she should bother watching him herself.
So I've been kinda shaky all day. Not only because I was seriously irritated at the punk boys, but because going out to confront the parents scared the heck out of me! I hate confrontation and I'm a huge wimp.
I know there are good boys out there. Our nephews are good examples of them. But most boys really bother me. In our experiences in public, at indoor play areas, the park, the zoo, ect.. the kids usually causing problems? Boys. I know girls cause their own drama, particularly once they hit the teen years. But it seems that for every "good boy" we come across, there are 14 horrible ones behind him. I know it all comes down to parenting. Our nephews' parents are totally on the ball. So what's with the other 95% of parents? Drives me crazy.
We're getting so worried about Mariska going to school and dealing with bullies. She is so sensitive and doesn't handle it well at all. It's a lot of pressure to feel a rush to teach her self-esteem and how to stick up for herself before August!!
I really hope Brent emotionally scarred at least one of those boys. It was so heartbreaking to hear Mariska defend herself through the tears!
5 comments:
It seems that there are always mean kids at those food play places. Kudos to you guys for demanding parental supervision of those brats.
It would be a good thing if Brent did indeed emtionally scar that kid - it will be a learning tool for him. Well, that is if his parents allow it to be.
It's so scarey to send your kids out into the cold, cruel world. Maybe Mariska can start a "Nice Kids Club" and they can only allow nice boys and girls in and they have to make an effort to do nice things for others and find other people who need a friend."
I'd join.
Me too. That's a good suggestion for her. I just really hope her teachers are on top of things!
Wow, I'm impressed! I'm pretty sure I would have been too chicken to do what you did, but I for definitely would have ripped those boys a new one. And way to go Mariska for sticking up for herself!
And while I agree that most of "those" boys are the product of their parents, I have to say that some awesome parents just end up with the difficult ones (not wanting to call any child of God a "bad seed"). I have a few friends who are amazing parents but their boys are just rotten. Interestingly enough, they usually mellow out into awesome older kids and teens.
I do think parents make a big difference. When we first moved to Cedar Hill, my hubby put in a sprinkler system by himself. Partway through the project, some girls down the street (probably 9 or 10 years old) decided to throw rocks at the uncovered pipes and broke one of them off. This caused the water to flood our yard, but when we got back home someone had turned off the main water line.
My husband spotted the girls walking by acting guilty and confronted them. They confessed and we went to talk to their parents. One parent, a mom in the military chewed out her daughter and made her apologize to us. The other mother accused us of lying about it and causing trouble for her precious angels. Ten years later, I wonder which girls turned out better?
I'm sorry Mariska had to go through that, but it's good that she told you. Preston is also sensitive and a similar thing happened at McDonald's. I didn't know about it until the mother was leaving and apologized to me. Preston had kept it to himself. I hope if he gets bullied in the future that he will let me know instead of keeping it in.
Oh poor Preston, he's so sweet!! Mariska always had fun playing with him. And I can't believe the girls confessed! At least they did that much... the parents should have made them pay for it. I certainly know girls can be just as nasty, again all depending on the parents and kid themselves...
Post a Comment